Has anyone heard anything solidly official about the soon/future closing of the Williamson Factory on the Northern Highway?

Much discussion yesterday and this morning about it and the repercussions on the Belize district economy - especially since many of the workers there are heads of households, including single mothers.

The closing of the Nova Shrimp Farm/Factory really put a hurt on us from last year, from which we (Belize District) are still staggering...

one response...

Nothing solidly official but its generally accepted inmedia circles that "the sewing factory" has taken thedecision to scale back production significantly.

Rural Belize District and parts of Orange Walk was hitseverely when late Jim Hyde passed and NOVA closed itsdoors. Jim was holding things together and with his passingcame the closure of the operations.

Now Williamson Industries (Belize)has been complaining wehear of high overhead costs and some say taxes. We don'tknow how true this is. I thought they had some tax exemptstatus but have not been able to independently confirm.

Its been largly dismissed in local media but a hell of a story as more unemployment = more crime.

Belize would have lost over a thousand jobs in the pastyear, if Williamson goes the way of Nova Shrimp Farms.

i have a friend who was in Belize in March and said the talk was that Williamson was already in the process of laying off some of the workers. He was told that the operation was moving to Guatemala. People living in the Ladyville area were quite concerned since they had already lost Nova shrimp a few months earlier.